Amendment SSA1-AB41

LRBs0098/1

GMM:jld&kjf:cph

2003 - 2004 LEGISLATURE

SENATE SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 1, TO 2003 ASSEMBLY BILL 41

June 4, 2003 - Offered by Senators Carpenter and Moore.

AB41-SSA1,1,3 An Act to create 111.335 (1) (d) of the statutes; relating to: permitting an educational agency to refuse to employ or to terminate from employment certain unpardoned felons.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

Current law, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits discrimination in employment based on conviction record. Current law specifies, however, that it is not employment discrimination because of conviction record to refuse to employ or to terminate from employment an individual who has been convicted of a felony, misdemeanor, or other offense, the circumstances of which substantially relate to the circumstances of the particular job.

This substitute amendment specifies that it is not employment discrimination because of conviction record for an educational agency to do any of the following:

1. Refuse to employ or to terminate from employment an individual who has been convicted within five years prior to the refusal to employ or termination of employment of a Class A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H felony against life or bodily security or against children for a violation that occurs on or after the effective date of the bill, and who has not been pardoned for that felony, whether or not the circumstances of the felony substantially relate to the circumstances of the job.

2. If the individual has served a term of imprisonment in connection with the conviction, refuse to employ or to terminate the individual from employment for five years after the date on which the individual is released from prison, whether or not the circumstances of the felony substantially relate to the circumstances of the particular job.

Under the substitute amendment, an "educational agency" is defined as a school district, a cooperative educational service agency, a county children with disabilities education board, a state correctional institution, a juvenile secured correctional facility, a secured child caring institution, the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Wisconsin Educational Services Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Mendota Mental Health Institute, the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, a state center for the developmentally disabled, a private school, a charter school, an agency under contract with a school board to provide a program for children at risk, or a nonsectarian private school or agency under contract with the Milwaukee Public Schools board to provide educational programs for children enrolled in the school district.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

AB41-SSA1, s. 1 Section 1. 111.335 (1) (d) of the statutes is created to read:

AB41-SSA1,2,12 111.335 (1) (d) 1. In this paragraph, "educational agency" means a school district, a cooperative educational service agency, a county children with disabilities education board, a state correctional institution under s. 302.01, a secured correctional facility, as defined in s. 938.02 (15m), a secured child caring institution, as defined in s. 938.02 (15g), the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Wisconsin Educational Services Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Mendota Mental Health Institute, the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, a state center for the developmentally disabled, a private school, a charter school, a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian agency under contract with a school board under s. 118.153 (3) (c), or a nonsectarian private school or agency under contract with the board of school directors in a 1st class city under s. 119.235 (1).

AB41-SSA1,3,10 2. Notwithstanding s. 111.322, it is not employment discrimination because of conviction record for an educational agency to refuse to employ or to terminate from employment an individual who has been convicted, within 5 years prior to the refusal to employ or termination of employment, of a Class A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H felony under ch. 940 or 948, or of an equivalent crime in another state or country, for a violation that occurs on or after the effective date of this subdivision .... [revisor inserts date], who has not been pardoned for that felony, and whose conviction has not been reversed, set aside, or vacated, except that, if the individual has served a term of confinement in prison in connection with that conviction, it is not employment discrimination because of conviction record for an educational agency to refuse to employ the individual or to terminate the individual from employment for 5 years after the date on which the individual is released from prison.

AB41-SSA1,3,11 (End)